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@BringMeMyFix
Crank length makes a difference, but you can adjust technique to get the best out of various lengths. Longer cranks have helped some hill specialists, notably Jeff Wright (180s), but he'd have trained specifically for slower cadence climbing (relative to some peers, and only in the region of +/-5rpm or something). Downside is it can make your stroke a bit choppy.
I could never be fucked with the expense/rigmarole of different cranksets. Same goes for bar width. I've managed to climb certain hills just as fast with a 165mm/44cm combination as I did with 170mm/46cm. But I pedalled slightly differently. Just make sure you spend a few weeks acclimatising to your racing setup.
Front brake is mandatory on a fixed rig for CTT events.
Most roadies (as opposed to hill specialist TTers) use their normal bike with no changes; and very often win. TTers are more likely to drag out a fixed machine or an idiosyncratic geared thing with bits missing.
It's going to fucking hurt. That's the bottom line.